Published 8:00 pm, Monday, September 20, 2004

Tanya Ross helps David Cross, left, and other members of his carpool into the car Friday afternoon at Woodcrest Elementary.

When students at Woodcrest Elementary arrive at school, Tanya Ross is there to greet them. When they finish with classes, she's there to send them on their way.

Ross, a paraprofessional, dons an orange vest to direct traffic flow and enforce safety rules during the hectic 15 minutes before and after school.

"The issue really is the fact that things have changed in our neighborhood schools. Where parents usually had students walk to school, now they bring them," said Doug Fillmore, Midland Public Schools facilities and operations director. "The parking lots are not designed for the kind of traffic flow we're experiencing on a normal basis."

Woodcrest is just one of the schools that has difficulty with traffic flow, he said, adding safety is the main concern.

Ross is one of the solutions - making sure young passengers stay behind painted yellow lines until their rides reach the curb and helping heavily backpacked students climb up into sport utility vehicles.

"Sometimes cars are lined up all the way down Dilloway Drive and Longfellow Street," Ross said. "When there are special events and no parking, they park on the grass."

She said parents have asked her why school officials don't expand the parking lot.

"For the time that it's used, about a 10-minute crunch window at dropoff and pickup time, it's a lot of money to put into fixing two 10-minute problems a day," Woodcrest Principal Jeff Pennex said. "Adults at the building have to control what we can control."

That means solutions such as carpooling and not dropping off students unless necessary.

"Normally I don't pick my children up. I'm here today because I'm working at the book fair," said parent Carol Cushman on Friday after school. "I encourage my boys to ride their bikes home together or walk home together."

Cushman's boys are in the third and fifth grades. Her fifth grader is a member of the safety patrol.

"Because the traffic is so congested, I have them bike or walk," she said. "We live very close to the school and I know my fifth grader knows safety rules."

Fillmore said it's important for people to be patient and work with people at different buildings to find solutions.

"Most people are pretty good, but it only takes one," he said. "There have been heated arguments and people have been close to blows over parking lot issues."